By CASEY MCNERTHNEY, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, October 14, 2008

A bill that President Bush signed Tuesday will mean back pay plus interest to families of 28 soldiers wrongly implicated in a 1944 riot and lynching of an Italian POW at Fort Lawton on Magnolia.

That bill, passed after the truth about the lynching was revealed in a book by Seattle author Jack Hamann, could give each of the families -- and the one surviving soldier -- at least $80,000, he said.

In 1944, white soldiers at Fort Lawton resented the Italian POWs who were held at the post but allowed to go on dates with local high school girls. False allegations by white military policemen led to a riot in August. Italian Pvt.Guglielmo Olivotto was lynched. A prosecutor later blamed the incident on black soldiers who weren't involved in the lynching.

The court convicted 28 of the soldiers, including two for manslaughter. They were all dishonorably discharged.

The following month, the Army issued checks to surviving soldier Samuel Snow and soldiers' families for a mere $725. The money represented the pay they would have earned.

The following month, Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., asked Army Secretary Pete Geren to revise the military's decision and adjust the pay upward to include interest. Geren later called the check to Snow a "travesty of justice."

"While no amount of money can ever repay the lost opportunities endured by these African-American soldiers, they would be the first to say it was never about money, it was always about equal protection under the law for everyone in America," McDermott said in a statement.

In July, families of some of the 28 soldiers gathered for a ceremony at Discovery Park, where the slaying occurred 64 years earlier, and heard a top Army official acknowledge the men's innocence and apologize. Snow, 83, was one of those wrongly convicted and traveled to Seattle for the honor.

"That meant more to him that anything else," his son, Ray Snow, said at the time. "And the heart was just slowly, just beating its time away."

Snow had said if he were to cash a check from the Army, he would do "what any good grandparent would do" and help his grandchildren through college.

"Without exception, these families never had come asking for money," Hamann said. "They are very gracious, very humble people who will now have an opportunity to use the money in a way that any other veteran could have."

Of the 28 defendants, only Illinois resident Ray Montgomery is known to be alive. The Army and Hamann have been unable to find relatives of 14 defendants.